The Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, invites States, United Nations departments and agencies, national human rights institutions, civil society and other relevant stakeholders to participate in the public consultation on the draft “Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments of Trade and Investment Agreements.” The document seeks to set out key principles that should guide human rights impact assessments for trade and investment agreements between States.

In paragraph 34 of its resolution 13/4, the Human Rights Council encouraged the Special Rapporteur to explore, in consultation with Member States and relevant stakeholders, ways and means of raising the capacity of countries, particularly developing countries, including least developed and net food-importing countries, to ensure the realization and protection of the right to adequate food for their populations, and to report his findings to the Council. Moreover, the work undertaken by the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food has been increasingly addressing issues related to trade and investment agreements and the right to food.

This document is also in response to a key recommendation of the international expert seminar held under the auspices of the mandate in Geneva from 23 to 24 June 2010. The seminar, at which a variety of stakeholders from all regions were represented, underlined the need for a set of principles for conducting human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements. This set of principles is intended to provide a methodology. It would also maximize the effectiveness of such assessments and ensure that they are not undermined by actors who misappropriate the term “human rights impact assessment.” The report of the seminar is available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Food/Pages/Otherdocuments.aspx.

The present draft has been prepared in consultation with the experts who participated in the June 2010 seminar, as well as other special procedures mandate holders, human rights treaty bodies and the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council.

The draft guiding principles can be accessed here. Please submit contributions electronically to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights through srfood@ohchr.org at your earliest convenience and no later than 1 November 2011.